D Gukesh during the Tata Steel Chess India tournament in Kolkata in September 2023. (Express photo. by Partha Paul.)
Before the Candidates chess tournament began in Toronto, former world champion Magnus Carlsen was asked to assess the eight-player field in the open section of the prestigious tournament that is being held to select the challenger to the world champion Ding Liren.
He had been miserly in his odds for the Indian trio of Vidit Gujrathi, Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh at the gruelling tournament. All three of them were competing in the Candidates for the first time. But Carlsen was particularly blunt about the chances of 17-year-old Gukesh winning the title.
Gukesh, the 17-year-old from Chennai, made history by winning the Candidates chess tournament which makes him the youngest ever contender at the World Chess Championship. (PHOTO: FIDE/Michal Walusza)
Talking about Gukesh, who was the second youngest player ever to compete at the Candidates, Carlsen had said: “I cannot imagine him winning the Candidates. I can see him being anywhere from +2 to -5 (at the end of the tournament). I think he will certainly win at least a couple of games, but will have some fairly bad losses as well. I don’t think he will do poorly, but I don’t think he will do too well either. He’s not quite ready yet to make the leap. It’s more likely that he has a bad event.”
Gukesh proved Carslen wrong by winning the Candidates, leaving the World No 1’s predicted favourites behind — two-time World Championship contender Ian Nepomniachtchi, World No 2 Fabiano Caruana and World No 3 Hikaru Nakamura — by half a point.
While Gukesh was still playing Nakamura in the final round, Carlsen was on the Chess24 stream to give his assessment of how the Candidates had played out where he admitted he had been “confused” about Gukesh.
“Gukesh is probably a bit stronger than myself and others realised. The thing about Gukesh is that he can look really vulnerable at times. Then he’s also not very good at speed chess. That can confuse (people’s assessment about him). And he’s not as high-profile as some of the other youngsters, which is confusing. But he’s proven in this tournament that he’s very strong,” admitted Carlsen.
Carlsen was asked about the younger generation of players coming up.
“In terms of the young players, they’re on the right track. I don’t think that any of them are ready… like to be No 1 in the world anytime soon. But there are many players who are never going to be like that. I don’t want to give these youngsters advice or anything,” he said before revealing that Gukesh had approached him at the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge chess event in Germany earlier this year to seek advice.
“He asked what he should do at the Candidates. I said ‘I don’t have any advice. I don’t know.’ I only told him that he should not go crazy and that he should wait for his chances because other people will go crazy. I don’t think that advice was even helpful at all. He’s played very well,” said Carlsen.
